A common piece of equipment used by artists is an artist bench which generally includes a horizontal seat panel supported by legs extending downwardly from each of the opposing ends of the seat panel. A work support in the form of an upright panel extends upwardly from one end of the seat panel for supporting a work piece of the artist, for example in place of an easel. To optimally orient the work piece for an artist sitting on the seat panel, the work support is often inclined upwardly and outwardly from the end of the seat panel.
Various examples of artist benches are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,074 by Prior, U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,348 by Allison, U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,360 by Czarnowski, U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,925 by Levy and U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,816 by De Sena. In each instance, the legs are foldable relative to the seat panel for storage, however a separate hinge structure is required for collapsing the work support independently of the legs. The resulting structures are a relatively complex number of parts to collapse a relatively simple object.
Furthermore, known prior art artist benches are typically limited to a single operating position for the artist.